[ ♪ theme ♪ ] [ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> john: good morning. this is the "bill press show." i'm john fuglesang filling in for bill with you until 9:00 a.m. eastern time. it is a pleasure to be here in bill's seat. he will be back tomorrow. for today, there's so much to talk about from last night's debate between scott walker and elizabeth -- scott brown and elizabeth warren. it is a little early. and the winner has already pronounced to be david gregory. mitt romney's trash collector is

talking. paul ryan has a hard time doing his math homework and best of all, a man with a doubly phallic name has endorsed governor romney. first, here's lisa. >> good morning everyone. it's not about whether you win or lose. it's how you play the game unless you're running for president then it is about winning but not according to mitt romney. in his version of reality where the polls are made up and the results don't matter he says the debates are about something bigger than winning. they're a chance for each candidate to present their funeral path to -- their future path to america. the president has said something very similar. his campaign said do not expect any big attacks because mr. obama just wants to continue his conversation with the american people. but romney is still prepping some zingers nonetheless. we may have got an bit of a preview in denver. here's a look. >> we've had 43 straight months with unemployment above 8%.

what does the president have to say to all of this? he says forward. i think forwarned is a better term. >> see what he did there? the vice presidential nominees have busy schedules today with paul ryan campaigning in iowa and joe biden in north carolina. but nothing on romney's campaign schedule and president obama is just wrapping up some final debate prep in nevada. in ohio, early voting gets underway today. here's a look at some great video of people camping out to be able to cast their vote at the cuyahoga county board of elections. state senator nina turner was very first and said the long line is symbolic of how important voting is in ohio. cleveland mayor frank jackson also showed up for some moral support. so far 32% of republicans have requested early ballots. and 26% of democrats. and these early votes in ohio could really be symbolic. mitt romney likely will not become president unless he can take ohio.

more john fuglesang coming up on the "full court press" after the break. stay with us. you're about to watch an ad message created by a current tv viewer for capella university. matter. >> i work with adults with developmental disabilities. growing up i had a single mother of four and people in the community were so helpful when they didn't even have much themselves. seeing people and their hardships made me want to make a difference in people's lives to give them hope. receiving a masters degree would open the doors for me to get into a management position where i would be able to do more for people.

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[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." now, filling in for bill, here's john fuglesang. >> john: good morning. this is the "bill press show." i'm john fuglesang filling in for bill a second day in a row in spite of overwhelming popular demand and a very passionate letter from bishop desmond tutu. it is a pleasure to be with you. today is tuesday october 2nd. today is the birthday of tiffany, pop star tiffany from the '80s, gillian welch, annie leibovitz, groucho marx would have been 122 years old today

and sting is 61. but he can last like he's 22. we're pleased you're with us. packed with news stories. i don't know where to begin. i guess i've gotta go to dan for the "full court press." >> hey, all right. >> john: good morning peter. >> nice to see you. >> john: great to be back. i haven't had dan here in a long time. >> the last couple times you were here, dan wasn't here. >> john: it's hard because i get used to you and i feel like we have a bond and then you're away and i needed you and you weren't there. >> i heard you were coming in so i had to take the day off. >> john: i thought we had a bromance but it turns out i'm bro-dependent. >> other headlines making news, you would think the owner of an nfl team would want nothing more than his team to have a winning season. not so for new york jets owner woody johnson. >> john: what could he possibly want more than a name that doesn't sound doubly

phallic. >> he told bloom beg news it was more important to him that mitt romney win the presidential election than the jets have a winning season. the team went 8-8 last year and is 2-2 so far. >> john: i come from new york. the jets aren't going to have a winning season and mitt romney isn't going to be president. let me ask you a question, dan when you're reading the headlines, is it distracting to read a name like woody johnson? >> a little. >> john: you kept your composure. i can think of peter o'toole and woody johnson doubly phallic game. >> go by richard johnson. >> john: if you're a celebrity or a rock singer, you need to shut up about your political opinions but if you're in the nfl, by all means talk about who you want for president. >> maybe mitt romney wasn't bluffing when he said of some his best friends own nfl teams. >> john: he said nascar teams

i thought. >> no, he said it about both. >> john: he'll probably buy the show and i will be -- >> the creator of the hit animated comedy family guy has been capped to host the next academy awards ceremony. seth mcfarlane made his debut with ted also behind american dad will take the stage at the oscars in february. last year it was hosted by billy crystal. >> you didn't say also created the cleveland show. >> sorry, the what? >> john: no one's talked about the cleveland show. are you excited about seth hosting? >> i think it will be great. it will be fantastic. >> john: he will be very funny although it is the sort of thing that seth mcfarland would make fun of. >> i think he'll do a fine job but i would expect him to make fun of the spectacle that is the oscars so now that he's part of it it is time to grow up and sell out. >> john: he will make fun of it while he's part of it. >> the beer culture in the u.s. continues to surge. "gq" magazine out with a list of

what it believes are the top five beer cities in the u.s. topped by denver by hosts the great american beer festival. san francisco makes the list for its beer foody culture. l.a. and philadelphia are also on there as well as cleveland ohio. "gq" making it clear it loves the cheapest low shelf beer one can find. >> john: top five beer cities. i don't understand this list. it is not in terms of beer consumption. >> no. in terms of beer culture. denver is a huge beer city. >> john: beer museums and beer galleries. >> beer paintings. >> john: you can live in the beer part of town and hang out with your beer friends. brilliant. that's it? that's all we got? are you a big beer guy? >> yeah, i am. i enjoy a beer. >> john: what are the top five beer cultures? >> denver, san francisco l.a. and cleveland.

>> okay. >> i don't think of l.a. as a beer town. >> john: i think of l.a. as like a meth and roofy town. white wine and barbiturates town. one of the top five cocaine towns. do you have that? >> maybe next hour. >> john: he asks in washington, d.c. [ laughter ] >> john: terrific. thank you so much. >> you got it. >> john: i love it. terrific. now we know everything going on in the world. we want to know what you think about tomorrow night's debate or zinger watch 2012. i've become convinced peter that the romney campaign leaked that he was rehearsing all of his ad-libs which is what they said yesterday that he was working on his zingers and that mitt has some great zingers which is pretty much the same as saying we're really practicing our off-the-cuff remarks. >> you're probably right that they leaked it. i hope they don't follow through and try to deliver some of these. you're a comedian. you tell jokes.

>> allegedly. >> if you were to tell a crowd right, hey i've got some really funny jokes about boom coming up later on. how do you think they're going to go over? >> john: unless it is a filthy subject matter, you're telegraphic. it is interesting because mitt romney uses a telegraph to communicate with the campaign staff. i think it will be interesting no matter what. we had a preview of debate fever last night with the scott brown/elizabeth warren debate which was either won or lost by david gregory depending on who you're talking to. first off before we get started, i want to know, governor romney is behind. he's behind in all of the swing states. the only group he's leading in ohio is those over75. those are people who tend to not pay federal taxes part of the 47%. oh irony thy bitter pill. mitt romney is leading among the 47% he derided in ohio. really, what can he do? what can governor romney do at this point in the campaign to

turn it around? can he be funny? should he get an earring? get his hair done? what could he possibly do to try to change his fortune? i want to know what the bill press listeners think. we're at 1-866-55-press. is there any way mitt romney can win this or is he really in the lead and as dick morris and sean hannity have said, all of the polls are lying and all of the polls are fraud because it is such a liberal media. so we want to know what you think. give us a buzz at 1-866-55-press. and let's have a listen, if we can to a very fascinating piece of audio. mitt romney's garbage man who i presume, isn't part of the 47% but he's a hard working american citizen. i would imagine he's union. i would hope he is. and they tracked down one of mitt romney's sanitation workers. let's give a listen to this audio. >> my name is richard hayes. i pick up mitt romney's trash.

we're called the invisible people. he doesn't realize -- a big health issue not picking up trash. residents do come out and shake our hands. sometimes they give us hugs and thank us for the job we're doing. tell us we're doing a good job and keep up the good work. picking up 15, 16 times by hand. that takes a toll on your body. when i'm 55, 60 years old my body will be broke down. romney doesn't care about that. >> not to worry about the -- >> john: he doesn't mean picking up 15, 16 tons at once. i'm kind of slow on these things. >> i hope not. >> john: i think he means cumulatively over a day or a week. that's just from ann's side of the week. i don't know why this guy wasn't invited to speak at the democratic convention.

it would have been pretty smart. so this is -- i don't know if it is an ad or where that audio came from but it is burning up on the interweb. >> it is an ad. >> john: it is smart. mitt romney walked right into this trap. mitt romney was trying so hard not to be thurston howell iii. i think he's more like charles winchester of m.a.s.h. he reminds me a lot more of charles emerson winchester trying to be cool with hawkeye and b.j. in the still. i think we have audio from mitt from yesterday. >> romney: it is not so much winning and losing or even the people themselves, the president and myself. it is about something bigger than that. these debates are an opportunity for each of us to describe the pathway forward for america that we would choose. >> john: we know his pathway would choose the paul ryan budget which cuts taxes for millionaires and tries to balance the budget by cutting taxes 20% across the board. when you think about the wealthy, they've had it tough for a long time.

it has been pretty tough to be a millionaire since 2001. the rich have been doing very poorly. what they need is a 20% across the board tax cut. and let's have less revenue and fix the deficit using hogwarts magic which is pretty much the paul ryan idea. that's what the widow's peak is about. i think it is part of his -- >> part of his dark hearts. >> john: they're slytherin all the way. i wouldn't trust them on a quidditch field. here is great audio that i'm thrilled about. i want to play all of this. todd akin, america's sweetheart. we talked with laura bassett about todd akin and about this guy should be written off forever about his comments about legitimate rape and how the woman's body has a way of shutting down pregnancies that were brought on by legitimate rape as opposed to the illegitimate kind that kind of makes me feel dirty. i feel better then is legitimate. don't you, peter? >> absolutely. >> john: todd akin managed to say something more offensive

than that in my opinion. a lot of you will disagree. we've seen the rnc running to todd akin's defense after begging him to drop out. reince priebus -- you know what his name is if you take out the vowels, it is rnc pr b.s. mitt romney will have to be called upon to see what he think about the todd akin -- because he didn't drop out. david duke ran and he got the nomination. he was the republican party nominee for senator from louisiana and president george h. w. bush was forced to come out and tell voters to vote for the democrat. i want to see mitt romney's feet put to the fire in much the same way. either cut this guy loose or defend him but mitt romney has to choose one.

this new piece of audio is more damaging. this is a few months old. this is a piece of oughtio from a town hall meeting that congressman akin had. and an older male voter got up and asked him why he would oppose the lilly ledbetter act which promoted fair pay for women. todd akin's response is something that i think rand paul could have done more artfully but essentially, it's pretty much the most friendly endorsement of legal discrimination you will ever hear. let's listen. >> i believe in free enterprise. i think it is about freedom. if somebody wants to hire somebody and they agree on a salary. that's fine. however it wants to work. so the government sticking its nose in is a huge problem. >> john: the government sticking its nose into all kinds of things. the civil rights act of 1964? if you're a libertarian might sound reasonable. if you apply for a job and the employer and employee agree on a

salary, who's the government to get in there? some people in this country have decided discrimination is bad. that was todd akin coming out in favor of discrimination in the workplace not just against women. against anybody. so what's to stop a business from not hiring people of a race or religion or sexual orientation they don't like? under todd akin, nothing right? yeah, what a guy. so i'm going to have you play that about four times during this episode. i think it's more shocking than legitimate rape. 1-866-55-press. i'm john fuglesang filling in for bill all morning on your current radio and tv, this is the "bill press show." we'll be right back. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." live on your radio and current tv.

>> announcer: heard around the >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> john: this is the "bill press show." this is inds. this -- this is inxs. this song is 25 years old. we're taking your calls at 1-866-55-press. so much to get to. i might still be here when bill gets back tomorrow between woody johnson of the jets having the coolest name of any romney supporter. the brown warren debate. if you want to have some fun this morning if you're feeling like you're unpopular in the workplace, do on the twitter and just search the words david and gregory and see what pops up. because after last night's debate, i have never seen more scorn heat on a debate moderator in my life. i didn't see the entire debate. i saw most of it and i think

david gregory was really hard on both candidates. and if you look on the twitter today, you'll see liberals feel he was completely biased and conservatives feel the same way. maybe david was doing something right. he was not doing something right over the weekend on "meet the press" when he actually misquoted the president. to a rather alarming extent and falsely claimed that barack obama had claimed that al-qaeda had been defeated. of course, if you heard the actual speech of barack obama he talked about how al-qaeda was on the run. he said barack obama had said that the goal that i set to defeat al-qaeda and deny it a chance to rebuild is now within our reach. there will be difficult days ahead. the sacrifices of our men and women are not over. david gregory said the president has said that al-qaeda has not had a chance to rebuild. that al-qaeda has been defeated. that's david gregory on the facts. regardless of what you think about his performance at the debate last night, i think he should be held to account for

that particular statement. fran is calling us from springfield, missouri. you're on the "bill press show." >> caller: okay. listen, why do -- why are they supposed to convince people to vote for the person that can throw fingers. this is the presidency we're talking about. >> john: it tells you how much the romney campaign thinks of the american people's intelligence. >> caller: exactly. because they don't have any. >> john: yeah. >> caller: in the 2008 primary debates, romney was asked a question what would he do if he was president. i don't remember what it was about. he said he would consult his attorney. >> john: yeah, exactly. he's been very, very light on specifics and i don't really understand why they would tout this. i have to believe that the campaign did it -- maybe i'm giving them too much credit but i have to believe they did it to lower expectations even more. that mitt's going to come out and give a sober analysis of policy and not try to be funny. because funny -- not exactly his strong suit.

would you agree? >> caller: when he delivers something, it is like a kid with a new toy. let's see how many zingers i can do now. i'm not a robot anymore. that's the extent of it. >> john: if you were advising governor romney, fran, what tips would you give him to turn this around reboot his campaign for the 47th time? >> caller: i would say talk against every republican that's running because if they haven't come out against voter suppression, what are you doing? >> john: i think you're smart. the one thing governor romney hasn't tried is being his own man and not pandering to the party base. i'm tellin' ya, if mitt romney would tell the tea party i disagree with you, i think my healthcare plan was awesome. if they went against them on one thing, i think they would respect him. it is mike mccain in between -- it is like mccain in 2010. >> caller: i think his mom is rolling in her grave as well as his dad. >> john: i think that's very possible. i don't want to talk about his

parents in that way too much but his mother was someone who was passionately in favor of a woman's right to choose. there used to be republicans who believed that. i think there's a lot of conservatives certainly in the financial sector who support abortion rights for that reason. his dad released plenty of tax returns. mitt hasn't. the contrasts are kind of sad. let's go to john in -- are we out of time? we're out of time already. we'll go to a break. john in kansas city hang on the phone. i'll get to you as soon as we come back. we're taking your calls at 1-866-55-press on the "bill press show."

(vo) what is said here could decide the election. current tv presents coverage of the presidential debate. with unrivaled analysis and commentary. >> you're going to hear that used as a major talking point. (vo) the only network with real-time reaction straight from the campaigns and from viewers like you. >>now that's politically direct.

[ ♪ theme music ♪ ] >> announcer: on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> john: this is the "bill press show." i'm john fuglesang filling in for bill all morning until 9:00 a.m. eastern time. langer writes in you are voting for romney. go to fox news. you a asterisk asterisk. i guess i can figure out what word he means by that. yes, vincent, you're right. i'm voting for mitt romney. i don't know how you saw through my facade of constant scorn and rebukes toward romney. i mock him all the time.

talk about his hypocrisy and how unelectable he is and how republicans hate him more than liberals do and yet you, vincent langer figured out i'm really voting for romney. i would like to know where you buy your meth. so we're taking your calls at 1-866-55-press. barack obama did something nice. he was in nevada. he went and bought a lot of pizzas for some folks. here's the actual audio of him showing up with pizza. [ applause ] barack obama what's going on, everybody? [ cheering ] >> john: since i'm voting for mitt romney, i can only imagine what mitt would have done in that situation. mitt would have actually bought the pizzeria, outsourced the jobs then brought vouchers to people and would have gotten an equal response. here's some of the folks at the pizza party right afterwards.

barack obama is it 34? >> 37. barack obama 36. so whatever it is, it is really coming up quick and obviously nevada is going to be critical to this election. >> john: the president doesn't know how many days until the election. he doesn't care how many -- you think he really didn't know how many days until the election? >> i mean -- first of all these outrageous countdowns to a certain day drive me nuts but we're not that far out. >> john: it's not that far out. he should know. i would think he knows. >> john: i think he's aware of it. that's how cool and off the cuff he is. mitt romney, of course, not to be outdone he is giving a foreign policy speech next week after the debate. the two candidates are not campaign today. they're both taking time off for today only to work on their debate prep. of course, mitt romney is rehearsing with rob portman of ohio standing in for barack

obama because really when you think about black neoprogressive democrat, who do you want to have stand in for that? rob portman. >> absolutely. >> john: this reminds me of the time that kniffin stood in for brown turned i feel good to i feel well. john is calling us from kansas city. good morning. you're on the "bill press show." >> caller: good morning. >> john: what a pleasure. >> caller: i'm in kansas city kansas. >> john: right on. i have family there. >> caller: great. your question is there any way romney can win? my answer is yes and how? it would be stealing the election. >> john: amen. >> caller: how did they win in florida in 2000. a list would include voter purging, rigging ballot box stuffing, voter fraud throwing out ballots which is why you should vote in person if at all possible. we must remember republicans are the kings of dirty tricks. >> john: they are. democrats have their own proud history as well. let's not forget how sinatra got the mob to deliver chicago for

jfk, et cetera. you left out one thing john. diebold voting machines. i don't know if you trust them but i have a problem with a machine doing a man's job and counting the votes that way. >> caller: i agree completely. >> john: when they picked pope benedict the cardinals voted using the diebold machine. he lost the first two votes because somehow bush won. i think that's something i worry about even more than voter fraud or voter suppression. >> caller: i was reading something in an article -- a news outlet called addicting information. >> john: addicting info, yeah. >> caller: a strange surge of registered republicans in riverside, california of 35,000 this year which gives the republicans an advantage of 51,000 voters over democrats. looks like they were positioning

people outside of welfare offices strangely enough. >> john: oh, my. >> caller: signing them up republican. >> john: what a shock. john, thank you for the call. it is really true. they're going to come out and tell you the big problem is voter fraud. folks, more people are killed by falling tvs every year than vote illegally. and voter fraud is not the problem. it is not a problem in any state but they want you to believe it's a problem so you will devote millions of your tax dollars to fighting this nonexistent problem which is really about suppressing the vote. as we've seen time and time again, whose vote doesn't get counted? it tends to be elderly folks minorities the working poor, college kids. we have many states in this country where you can vote using an nra i.d. but can't vote using a college i.d. talk about values, huh? lilly is calling us from corona, california. you're up very early. good morning. you're on the "bill press show." >> caller: hi. actually, i'm in riverside. >> john: riverside.

right on. >> caller: i love the news i just heard. i'm going to do something about this. do you know that riverside was voted the number one intelligent city in like the world by the organization -- this worldwide organization? >> john: i did not know that. most intelligent city in the world? >> caller: yes, honest. riverside is the most intelligent city. and i wonder how this fits in with that. who's running it? republicans? >> john: the most sinister, maybe. >> caller: the other thing i was going to comment on the diebold machines. also people like you and others have brought them up. that's as far as it goes. aren't they made by republicans? aren't they controlled by republicans? >> john: they are. back in '04, the ceo of the company said his mission was to get george bush elected president. howard dean did an interesting demonstration about how easy it is to hack into one of those

machines. >> john: the media is only as liberal as the corporations that own the media. if the media were liberal, they would be talking about this. >> caller: can't the president have control over those? >> john: over a private corporation, i don't think so. >> caller: who makes the voting machines? >> john: barack obama doesn't seem worried about it. >> caller: i left him a message. the republicans are -- i know people -- i'm not trying to be -- oh, by the way whenever i need a laugh, all i have to do is go hit the rerun of you doing chris matthews and i -- that makes my day. >> john: you mean on the cd? that's for the folks in radioland, i do the stephanie miller sexy liberal comedy tour with stephanie and hal sparks and aisha tyler. our album came out last christmas. i do an impression of chris matthews holding a five panel discussion where only chris matthews gets to talk. it guarantees i will never be invited on his show. >> caller: last thing i was going to say is all president

obama has to do is say whatever mitt romney says is say hey your goal was not to let me do anything so i guess you did your job. no matter what they say that's all they've done is block him from doing anything and i'm surprised that he even helped the homeowners. i was one of them that got a really good deal. i was surprised that he even got that through because all he has to do is say wasn't your job not to let me -- >> john: you're right lilly. if i were the president, i would talk more about the jobs bill that was blocked. it was 60% tax cuts. so if you killed that bill -- i call it the boo radley bill because it never left the house. if you do that and you kill that bill, you're saying you don't believe tax cuts help an economy. you don't believe tax cuts help jobs. >> mitt romney having his bank account, can you imagine a president of the country not wanting to pay taxes having his bank accounts in other countries so he can dodge the taxes?

>> john: i don't have to imagine it. i can see it on my tv during the debate. let me ask you another question, are you going to be supporting mark for congress. >> caller: is he a democrat? i just got his pamphlet in the mail. >> john: he's an openly gay democrat running for office. he ran years ago back in the '90s and was outed by his republican opponent and it buried him in the election. this year, he's running as an openly lgbt candidate. i got the chance to interview him when i was filling in for jennifer granholm on her excellent show, "the war room." we did a week and we did a whole series of lgbt candidates for office. mark is a teacher in riverside running for congress from your district. check him out. >> caller: i'm a christian but you know something? i think that gay people and any democrat is more truthful than any republican for the majority. >> john: jesus never said a thing about gay people.

>> caller: well, it is in the book of the bible. >> john: it is in leviticus. >> caller: it's in the new testament, too. it is. >> john: so you're against drag shows. you're against drag queens. >> caller: i don't want to go into that but i don't judge. >> john: it is a free country. jesus never said a thing about gay people and st. paul wasn't talking about gay people in romans as we understand it now. i thank you for the call. i'm going to lecture you about the bible some other time. if you're a christian homophobe call in. i'm john fuglesang filling in all morning. we'll be right back. >> announcer: this is the "full court press." the "bill press show," live on your radio and on current tv. >>i know you're going to want to weigh in on these issues. >>connect with "full court press with bill press"

at facebook.com/billpressshow and on twitter at bpshow. >>i believe people are hungry for it.

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we have a big, big hour and the i.q. will go way up. how are you ever going to solve the problem if you don't look at all of the pieces? >>tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. >>you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. >>sharp tongue, quick whit and above all, politically direct. >>you just think there is no low they won't go to. oh, no. if al gore's watching today...

>> announcer: radio meets television. the "bill press show." nounce heard around the country and seen on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> john: this is the "bill press show." i'm john fuglesang. you're listening to bill playing bass with blue oyster cult back in 1978 when bill was a touring bassist? >> something like that. >> john: i thought so. joe biden band. i'm not sure. we're taking your calls all morning at 1-866-55-press. that's 1-866-55-press. you know, things were just getting interesting with lilly. i'm amazed when i hear someone talk about how they're a progressive democrat then you bring up an lgbt issue. well, i'm a christian. the good news of jesus, he wasn't a douche bag. jesus is not a homophobe.

you cannot use the bible to say that same-sex relationships between consenting adults are wrong and i can prove it with an abacus and an etch-a-sketch. you can't do it. the book of leviticus is where it says ye shall not lie with a man and a woman. then you have to follow all of the laws which means execute gay guys and children who are gluttons or drunks, execute people who work on the sabbath. that's saturday, sorry nascar. execute adulters which includes people who get divorced and remarried. i don't mind being a homophobe. it is a free country. don't hide behind the bible. jesus never said an anti-gay thing in his life. romans is paul talking about romans sexual practices and it is all mistranslated from the original greek. deuteronomy is about male prost tuesday. you don't find anything about consensual relationships between same sex adults in the bible

that you can use to justify homophobia. christianity is not cover for bigotry. you want to hate gay people, you're allowed to it. is a free country. don't claim you are being christian. jesus doesn't want you to judge sinners. he never said a damn thing about gay people. i can prove jesus had no problem with gay people as well but we'll do that later in the show maybe. the centurian story amazing all about jesus upsetting the apostles because he wasn't upset about certain kind of relationship that roman officers used to have when they would be on the road. it's good. it's comedy. vicky is calling from woodland hills, california. good morning. you're on the "bill press show." happy october 2nd to you. >> caller: thank you very much for the opportunity. one of the things that concerns me it appears to be an exercise -- everything that has been pointed out about romney

all of the 47%. he has come up with the most idiotic concepts about his proposals to govern when he becomes president. >> john: like what. give me an exrchl of an idiotic idea of his. >> caller: taxes. he keeps saying he's not going to tax then he is going to tax and he's not going to tax. he's all -- information that he pointed out, it doesn't actually -- i'm a volunteer over here in the valley for obama and i'm on the phone talking to people in colorado and nevada and most of the locations. and what i get in reading -- the

probability of president obama being elected is only about 3%. and for some, it is only 1%. the idiocy that this man has flown -- excuse me for not using correct format -- >> john: that's okay. >> caller: the american people, doesn't care. they don't care. it doesn't seem like anything -- that this man says, romney, is makes any difference. the possibility of obama being elected is minimum. the possibility he may not even be elected. what i would like to know, what are the democrats doing? why is this situation -- it doesn't make any difference what this man is doing? >> john: well, sure, the democrats are doing a lot. they're getting the facts out. obama's rapid response team on

his campaign out of chicago is doing a great job of knocking down the silly stuff that mitt romney says and really, vicky they're doing things like having folks like you be volunteers which is the smartest thing they could do. let me ask when you're calling people in other states or battleground states, what kind of response to you get when you call up? >> caller: i get kind of response that he is taking this country to becoming -- communism. i'm voting for romney because it is the most important for me is freedom. this is -- what i would like to know is reporting is out there on "the washington post." all of the media. either liberal media or conservative media. it only shows the possibility of obama being elected.

only about -- in some instances 1%. >> john: yes. it is still a very close race. >> caller: what concerns me is whatever this man romney, which i cannot even call him whatever he is because he's nothing but a phony -- >> john: you sound like a republican. >> caller: it is not making an effect on the american people. the only thing is when they came up with that video where he degraded all of the people in the social security and medicare was the only time that the needle moved for about 10%. >> john: i think you're right. >> caller: it was 1% and 2%. this is disheartening. what is the american people -- doesn't it matter what this man romney is saying? >> john: i think for the call, vicky. mitt romney is the man they hate to love but barack obama's the man they love to hate. you've had four years of a solid

beam hate machine filling people's minds with crazy -- communists don't make you buy private insurance lies. that's the dumbest lie of the entire campaign. we'll be right back at 1-866-55-press. it is "bill press show." >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

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(vo) always outspoken, now unleashed. joy behar. >> on my next show, i'll talk to fashion icon stacy london. now, i have to figure out what not to wear, for the host of what not to wear. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> john: this is the "bill press show." i'm john fuglesang filling in for bill this morning. we'll be covering the big barack obama/mitt romney debate tomorrow night on current tv. we know you have many options of places to go for your debate

coverage. let me encourage you to try out current tv's coverage because not only will we have al gore leading the coverage. we'll also have governor jennifer granholm star, in my opinion of the democratic convention -- i thought she had the best speech. what did you think? >> hands down! >> john: bill clinton was an appetizer. granholm owned it. we'll have governor eliot spitzer what for my money is leading a master class on wall street and corporate crime on his show, "viewpoint." cenk uygur of "the young turks." i'll be there. your tweets as well. it won't be as huge and expansive a tweet screen filling up the entire frame but your tweets will be on screen throughout the debate. while we comment over the candidates, you will be able to see your comments. i will be tweeting for current tv from their twitter handle during the debate doing my best to make mr. gore violently upset. we'll be taking your calls when we come back at 1-866-55-press. want to know what you think mitt romney can do. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> john: it is the "bill press show" on your radio and your computer and current tv, i'm john fuglesang filling in for bill all morning. so much going on here on tuesday, october 2nd from the scott brown/elizabeth warren debate which the clear loser david gregory. did paul ryan really not liking math or doing his math homework to mitt romney trying to get zinger fest 2012 up and going tomorrow to the president looking like all he has to do is not drool in public and win this thing and perhaps the democrats are getting too smug.

my god there's so much to talk about. the only way i can make sense of all of this is if i could go to lisa ferguson in the underground bunker for a current news update. good morning lisa. how you doing? >> so much to talk about. good morning everyone. mitt romney is out with a new ad this morning tying president obama to nancy pelosi and the liberals. >> who will raise taxes on the middle class? barack obama and the liberals already have. to pay for government-run healthcare, you'll pay higher taxes and more for your medicine. >> that ad is referring to the fact that in his decision to uphold the affordable care act earlier this year, the supreme court redefined individual mandate as a tax. what it actually does is require everyone to have health insurance since many people already do, it is a bit of a stretch to consider that a tax on all americans. when you look at the president's policies as a whole he has enacted several tax breaks for the middle class. like the adoption and dependent

care tax credits and a 2% payroll tax cut. the ad claims mitt romney would then lower taxes on the middle class but look, when you look at this ad, the facts don't add up. according to the tax policy center, romney would have to get rid of the president's tax breaks effectively raising taxes on the middle class all in order to pay for his tax cuts for the wealthy. and speaking of taxes and spending cuts, leaders in the senate right now are working on a plan to avoid the fiscal cliff come january. we're looking at $720 billion worth of tax hikes and spending cuts which economists say will throw the country back into another recession. to avoid that, congress has to find a solution after the election but before the start of next year. right now, a bipartisan group of senators is working on a three-part deal, a big part of that includes reducing the deficit by $4 trillion over the next ten years. they also want to put off the automatic spending cuts but

president obama has said he will not let congress override them. more john coming up after the break. presents coverage of the presidential debate. with unrivaled analysis and commentary. >> you're going to hear that used as a major talking point. (vo) the only network with real-time reaction straight from the campaigns and from viewers like you. >>now that's politically direct.

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>> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." now filling in for bill, here's john fuglesang. >> john: i have the best ring in town. if you call me during the show, will you hear the coolest ring tone. >> is that right? joan the pop song of the past four years that makes the coolest possible ring tone. >> i'm tempted to call you. >> john: i will have to share it. everyone will steal it. when you have a pop song come out of your phone, it is usually jarring. i found the perfect one. it is the rolling stones.

this is the "bill press show." you have to guess which show. i'm john fuglesang filling in for bill all morning long. we're taking your calls. apparent there is a debate tomorrow. i wish the media would talk about this a little bit. i've never seen the media talk about something that hasn't happened yet more than they talk about the stuff that's happened. it is so crazy. such a fervor over mitt mentum and what mitt can do to turn this thing around, i have to have a breather and have some "full court press." >> good morning. other headlines making news on this tuesday. >> someone is in a rush. you weren't even here yesterday punk. what is that about? >> the major league playoff picture is becoming clearer with two days remaining in the regular season thanks to an atlanta braves loss, the washington nationals clinched the n.l. east division title. detroit tigers won the a.l. central. athletics clinched a playoff birth as well.

one spot out of ten second national league wild car spot remains up for grabs. the l.a. dodgers and st. louis cardinals are fighting for for that one. >> front-runner will lose that. >> next two days will determine which team gets which playoff division. still no division leaders in the a.l. east or a.l. west. >> john: i could tell the generals clinched it. >> you mean the nationals. >> john: did i say generals? we were talking about the older team. well, there's my enthusiasm. the washington nationals yeah. are you guys excited? >> yes. >> i'm super excited. but it is a weird -- you know, washington, d.c. is now and always has been a football city. even though our football team is terrible. and have been for a very long time. and -- >> john: why do you say their tearable? because of their incredibly racist sports team name? >> we can talk about that. >> john: i would love to.

>> they're looking for more names, different names to refer to the washington incredibly racist -- >> john: my web series caffeinated episode goes up today, all about the redskins and how in 2012 like you know that your ethnicity is marginalized when they can get away with this. i go through every possible racist sports team that you would never get away with because other ethnicities wouldn't allow it. people -- i'm happy about the national league. i think it's great. any time a d.c. team does well, we can talk about taxation without representation. >> if you're in d.c., go see some baseball games. >> john: for real. >> they're not selling out the stadium. it is terrible. >> john: it's because the montreal expos left canada and came to d.c. that now there's only one non-american team that could play in the world series. kind of hilarious. >> if the presidential election were decided on whose wife had the best cookie recipe, president obama would easily see another four years in office. michelle obama has won the

"family circle" magazine presidential cookie bake-off. the magazine does this every four years for white and dork chocolate chip cookies. peter, you remember we talked about these. she won with 52% of reader's votes beating out ann romney's m&m cookies with 48%. >> john: were they -- >> recipes in the magazine. which one would you rather eat? >> john: she had a white chocolate -- >> white and dark chocolate. >> john: ann romney had m&m. it works itself out all around. that's exciting. do you ever feel like it is too wonky talking about these policy issues? >> no. >> john: good. >> by the way, i was all for ann romney's recipe. >> yeah, you were. >> john: that's because you hate barack obama because you're a racist. you hated michelle's cookies. what's wrong with you? >> it seems fitting that -- >> john: i don't want michelle

obama's socialist cookies no. >> that's a painfully accurate accurate -- >> john: michelle obama with her sleeves you got a job instead of mooching, mooching off the taxpayers. mr. hannity can i have a sugar cube? nah. see? yeah. >> edward g. territory. >> john: i apologize if i gave mark too much dignity. >> spot on. >> john: thank you. i channel him. >> it seems fitting that a man who spends his life swimming in water is helping a campaign for access to clean water. politico tells us that olympic gold medal swimmer ryan is working with water for people on a new psa campaign to help raise money for developing countries to get better access to clean drinking water. >> john: what a guy. that's terrific. nice to hear about pro athletes

doing something besides endorsing mitt romney this week. thank you so much, dan. >> you got it. >> john: edward isaac is the politico deputy white house editor. i'm excited to have him on bill's show this morning to talk about this debate because apparently there is a debate going on this week. i had no idea. it's gotten barely any media coverage. are you with us? >> i am. >> john: what a pleasure. thank you so much. obviously people are talking about zinger watch 2012. and for some reason, the public has been led to really want to anticipate what kind of crisp well-rehearsed one-liners mitt romney is going to have. is this an example of subterfuge? is the romney campaign trying to throw us off the track or was it a clunky, dumb leak? >> this is just part of what has become i think really, more than any previous year about setting expectations, setting the expectations for the expectations are, setting expectations for what the off-the-cuff rehearsed one-liners are going to be and

then we're into a crazy mode of prepreparation for this debate. to the point that i think most people will be able to write or say whatever they're going to say about the debate before it even happens because they've already said it at this point. >> john: right. i guess by that, you don't really anticipate any big surprises coming out of tomorrow night's exchange? >> presidential debate at this point is sort of like watching a nascar race. you know they're going to go around and around it won't be that exciting for most of the time. there will be the possibility of a crash or some one moment -- one three seconds that really sets the tone of it. you could have something like what happened in 2000 when al gore put a lot of problems in place for doing all of the sighing during the first debate and not really being able to modulate his tone in a way that

made sense. but i think we're not really expecting that out of either mitt romney or barack obama. these are guys who are pretty even keeled throughout and have been through their debates that they've done. but importantly the debate moment that sticks out in most people's minds about the president is that moment with his debate -- from hillary clinton when he said you're likable enough. i don't remember how many times they debated in 2008 but it was many hours of democratic debates. it was those couple of words that really are -- the ones that are remembered from barack obama's primary debate performances. >> john: i would agree with that. it is interesting when you consider about how the primaries help vet a candidate. barack obama was up against people like hillary clinton and john edwards who is a very good debater. he was up against hard core progressives like dennis kucinich and mike ra vel. he was tested by some pretty good thinkers and really good talkers. say what you want about kucinich. the guy is a great debater as is

mitt romney. i thought he dominated every debate this entire primary season and yet it was a very weak field. do you think that considering this is only the second time governor romney's ever debated a democrat, do you think he's been adequately prepared? >> well, those debates during the primary season were, at times, pretty intense and there were certainly enough of those to give governor romney some practice. and it's important that president obama hasn't done a proper debate in four years. so he's coming at this with the less time he's had that he did the debate. he was not even the president yet and now he's got to defend his record and talk about what he's done in a way that he hasn't had to over the course of the last four years. governor romney though is in a position where he is -- he's gotta do something different from what he was doing during the primary debates which is not

appealing to the base or sort of getting through them without making a big disaster happen but instead, positively proactively appealing to people and making the connection that he hasn't been able to make with large part to the electorate so far. >> john: how does he do that? >> it's a tough question. i'm not sure that i have a better answer than the legion of debate coaches that governor romney has working with him. but he has to -- it seems to make it clear to people that he understands what they're going through in a way that's not simply numbers on a graph. but he needs to do it in a way that comes across as authentic which has been somewhat of a problem for him over the course of the campaign so far. so he's gotta make it that he gets what they're talking about but he's not saying it just to say it and he has something that

will convince people that he's got a plan that makes it so that he should be the one elected over president obama. that's the big problem that any candidate running against an incumbent has. they've gotta convince the people first to attach themselves from the incumbent and then attach themselves to the challenger. he hasn't quite done either of those things yet. >> john: it is not for lack of trying. while the campaign has been short on policy specifics he's done everything possible to smear the incumbent. craig unger has a piece about the g.o.p.'s new october surprise which they're calling -- a source calls a jimmy carter strategy to try to make the president seem weak on defense here in the final month of the campaign. mainly based on what happened in libya. it seems that governor romney is going to go all out and double down on exploiting the tragic death of ambassador stevens to make the president look terrible at foreign policy despite his

successful record of it. do you think that's a game changer for mitt romney? can he use this tragedy to try to make the president an object of scorn? >> well, first of all the tricky thing there is that there is a debate that's on foreign policy. the last of the three debates they'll have. so he has two debates in between now and then that are going to be mostly focused on the economy and their domestic issues. that being said, there is a potential it would seem to make some hay out of the administration's changing story or at least incomplete story that they have given along the way about what happened in benghazi, whether it was a terrorist attack, whether it was something that could have been prevented. is it something that was bumbled at some point either in the -- the ways that it could have been stopped or what was going on afterwards. those are things that there have

been questions raised about. however, governor romney has not had such a strong showing when it's come to this issue himself. that initial reaction he had to it when he spoke out and the night of the attack and then the next morning got him into a lot of trouble. >> john: a lot of trouble. >> of course he's coming into it with no foreign policy experience really at all and the same goes for his running mate. that means that he has potentially an issue that he can attack the president on but he's not coming at it from a position of strength himself. >> john: anybody who watched mitt romney at the olympics knows he has extensive foreign relations experience. it takes a lot to upset that particular ally. let me tell you about the president's debate preparation. it seems the greatest concern the obama camp faces is sort of what mitt romney's greatest concern is. he might come across as being too robotic as not being warm. a lot of people i know were concerned the president won't be

overly professorial and speak in paragraphs when he needs to speak in sound bytes. do you think that's a legitimate fear? >> i think it's not. that's part of it but even more so, the fear is that they -- that he doesn't come across as snobbish or a jerk or any of those things that make people stand back from him. it is that you're likable enough, hillary thing. where he was making what -- i don't think he meant to be a comment that would cause people to be upset but it did because it's just the way that he can sometimes come across. it is making sure that he is a guy who is himself likable enough and is not going off as he famously said when he was talking about his negotiations with the congressional leaders is that people need to eat their peas. that's not what people want to hear out of the president at a presidential debate. they're looking for some level

of connection and inspiration. and he's gotta make sure to do that on all fronts. >> john: i agree with you the debates aren't really debates. they're very -- well-structured the candidates don't have too many surprises coming at them. they seem to be rather well-choreographed pageants where they're given virtual guarantees so they won't have anything to trip them up. what would you do structurally to change the format of the debates to make it more of an even exchange of ideas and to benefit the american people? >> it is tricky. because no matter what happens all of the people involved know these are very important showcases and are going to spend a lot of time preparing. so it's not as if you can really catch them by surprise on anything that's going to happen but what you can do is things -- i think some of the moves that have been made this year to change the format a little bit and make it -- more topics and covering things in a more rapid fire way. can help.

beyond that, we -- you could have the fantasy of well, we'll just put them on stage for 90 minutes and let them go at it. that, i don't think ends up creating a very strong debate and something that will actually tell us much about either of the candidates. it would be sniping at each other for 90 minutes and both of them or however many people are on stage would look bad. >> john: right. >> so these are tricky. you know, i don't know how many of those 17 republican debates you watched. i watched all of them. they -- after a certain amount of time, you do get to have a sense of who these people are. >> john: i agree. >> in the debates when there were all of the candidates running on stage. by the end of the third debate, we will have a better sense of who these guys are than we do now. >> john: i agree. edward i'm sorry.

we're out of time. you're the deputy white house editor for politico. everyone should follow you on twitter. thank you for being on the "bill press show." we'll be right back. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >>only on current tv. dose of politics from a fresh perspective. >>i'm a slutty bob hope. the troops love me. >>only on current tv.

en (vo) cenk uygur is many things. >>oh really? >>tax cuts don't create jobs. the golden years as the conservatives call them, we had the highest tax rates, and the highest amount of growth, and the highest amount of jobs. those are facts. >>"if you ever raise taxes on

the rich, you're going to destroy our economy." not true! [ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> announcer: this is the "bill >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> john: this is the "bill press show." i'm john fuglesang filling in for bill all morning. taking your calls at 1-866-55-press. coming up, think progress editor in chief judd legum will be here in studio with me. later, "buzzfeed" political reporter mckay coppins and wayne of the humane society. when your name a fuglesang, you

have to get other people's names correct. i want to read a quick e-mail from edna. i can't call in because i'm almost deaf. one, the debates are for the pundits, not the voters there. is early voting, record number of absentee voters are -- ballots are requested by democrats. early voting is used by democrats. democrats are enthused thanks to a good ground game. the hype for the debate will be over by friday. too bad we have to go through listening to the pundits and friday is the jobs numbers. that will be what might decide the election. number six only ones excited are the journalists. majority of americans will be tuned into other stations there. might be a friends rerun. romney will be debating himself. my husband and i have already voted absentee. we are disabled. we voted democratic. >> john: you just said a mouthful edna. we'll be taking your calls at 1-866-55-press. i'm john fuglesang. this is the "bill press show." >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

eliot spitzer on "viewpoint." joy behar. what a great person and a great talent. very, very funny. outrageous. she's going to bring a lot of (vo) what is said here could decide the election. current tv presents coverage of the presidential debate. with unrivaled analysis and commentary. >> you're going to hear that used as a major talking point. (vo) the only network with real-time reaction straight from the campaigns and from viewers like you. >>now that's politically direct.

>> announcer: this is the "bill press show," live on your radio and current tv. >> john: i'm john fuglesang happy to be filling in for the great man this morning. we'll be taking your calls at 1-866-55-press. i do have a little announcement for people in the bill press liberation front. bill will be signing his book "the obama hate machine." i'm going to hold it up for the lucky people watching the show on current tv. sorry radio folk. do yourself a favor and pick it up. bill will be signing the paperback copy of "the obama hate machine" on friday, october 12th at avenue m restaurant and bar on merriman avenue in

asheville, north carolina. freight town. great, progressive town. they have a right wing senator who called asheville a cesspool of sin. you know they're doing something right. stephanie miller's mom lives there and my mom is living there, too. support bill if you're in asheville. meet the great man and get him to sign your book. you're up at an ungodly hour, judd legum. i think if you care about democracy, you should have this -- be bookmarked on your computer contraption to think progress. please welcome think progress editor in chief judd legum. >> thanks so much for having me here. >> john: of course. i can only imagine how excited you are about the mitt mentum and the romney reboot of his campaign. >> it has been interesting because each day it is a new day and seems to be a new campaign for mitt romney. and this morning sort of an interesting tact where he's

trying to make an appeal to hispanics. i think he's finally woken up to the fact that if you do worse than jot only george bush but john mccain when that's an increasing part of the population, you're not going to do too well in the election. the folks who have gotten visas under the new obama program sort of the version of the dream act but without the legislative part, he's not going to take that away. that's something we hadn't heard before. he's out with that now. i think he's probably going to run with that and see where it gets him. >> john: mitt romney didn't exactly endorse the president when he made this decision a few months back and i have been of the opinion that mitt romney could get a lot more respect from the republican base if he was willing to buck them and stand up to them a bit and not pander to them all the time. i think our republican friends aren't stupid. they know when someone is trying

to pander to them. this is a surprise. suddenly he's embracing this. does it seem to you like it is a ploy to get the conservative latino vote? >> i think that it is a little bit of desperation. it is something you might have expected months earlier. what's shocked me kind of up until this point is romney was pushed so far to the right in the primary because he was really worried about santorum and all of them, perry and because he had this history as the governor of massachusetts and had a reputation as being more of a moderate, he -- especially on immigration really took a hard right position, to the right of rick perry, to the right of almost everyone else running and he never really tacked back. he's kind of stuck with that all the way through and i think finally he may be starting to realize well, we need something to offer. the problem is at this point a lot of the perceptions and a lot

of the perceptions of romney really historically negative for an actual nominee of the party. have sunken in. so i don't know if you can really make a fundamental change in how people perceive you. but he's got three debates and you know, people are paying close attention so it seems like he's at least going to give it a shot. >> john: i want to ask you about mitt romney's tack to the right. it reminds me of a not too long ago candidate who wasn't comfortable in that position. one more question about the latino vote. the conventional wisdom is you can't get the white house without 40% of the latino vote. how did george w. bush do? >> he got 44%. and but you know, he had a real -- actually, for people -- people forget. he had a pretty forward-looking view on immigration reform. it was a different kind of republicanism. he governed in one way but politically, he understood that he needed to modernize the party. so he had a forward-looking view

and it appealed to hispanic voters and said look, we need a path to citizenship. we need to have comprehensive immigration reform. you really can't say that as a major republican leader these days but he did and it worked out and did he quite well. >> john: did his knowledge of espanol help him at all? >> i think maybe a little bit. coming from texas and having that history being governor of texas where you know, obviously a large latino population and if you want to do well there you know, even if you're not pulling the majority of latinos, you can't ignore their issues. and be successful in the state for as long as he was. >> john: not until you're elected. >> they did one thing when they governed but i think the bushes were very savvy and had a forward-looking vision and said okay, we want the republican party -- you know, karl rove came out with that -- you know, the decade-long republican

majority and how they were going to sustain this and they had kind of a plan for how they were going to do it. i don't think romney really has a plan. he's got some tactics that he thinks is going to work this time or was hoping was going to work this time. and it spill might work. you don't know. there is a long way to the election. there doesn't seem to be that vision of what happens 10, 20, 30 years from now when the country looks a lot different than it does now and how do we kind of piece together a majority. >> john: it's interesting. when you talk about romney tacking to the right i think of a previous candidate for president, someone who had run before, then had the organization, had the fund-raising apparatus, was able to secure the nomination but was kind of pushed by the party to run much further to the right than he was comfortable with. i'm not talking mccain. i'm talking about bob dole. i see more and more comparisons between bob dole and mitt romney running against an incumbent president. back in '96 soft money was the

big concern about influence being molded by big bucks in the campaign. now in the era of citizens united that, seems kind of quaint. it reminds me a lot of bob dole. seeing governor romney tack so far to the right against gingrich and santorum to get the nomination, to steam roll them and when eric fehrnstrom made the etch-a-sketch comment on cnn, he was widely mocked. that's why we saw mitt romney stay to the right longer than expected because he didn't want to be seen as an etch-a-sketch. but now that we're out of the convention time, mitt's pretty much doing anything he can to appeal to as many voters as possible. does he run the risk of alienating the base even more? >> i think he does. and i think one of the things that we've seen is people haven't gotten excited about him. still. you know. and i think where that causes a problem for him is not so much that republicans aren't going to support him because i think they are and i think the polls reflect that he does get the

republicans. but he's not given the freedom to run his own campaign because you still have kind of the conservative contary pounding him again and again and again every time you have a misstep. and i think that boxes him in quite a bit. and i think that probably was one of the things that influenced him to pick paul ryan who i don't think has brought much to his effort. and probably has hurt him if you look at the polling on medicare. they were talking about that a lot when they first announced the ticket. they don't talk about that as much and i think because they were just losing that debate or have lost that debate. and -- >> john: i think you're right. >> so i think that it's a problem for him in comparison to bob dole obviously are not -- is not the kind of candidate you want to be compared to. the other thing he shares with bob dole is it was really hard

for bob dole to get any momentum. you couldn't get anything going and you kind of feel that way for mitt romney. but i think the positive thing is it could make for an interesting debate. >> john: i think so. >> because i think there's a lot at stake and there will be three debates, four debates if you count the vice presidential debate. one a week for the whole month of october. it's going to be -- we'll see what the strategy is but i think especially if you don't see things changing, there could be some fireworks. >> john: the other difference is on a personality level, mitt romney makes bob dole look like lil' wayne. he want to know what you think. can you take some calls? >> sure. >> john: let us know what you think with think progress editor in chief with judd legum. that's 1-866-55-press. i want to talk to you about barack obama and i want to talk to you about paul ryan and an this debate with joe biden. that may be the most interesting debate of the entire season. taking your calls. this is the "bill press show."

>> announcer: on your raidee and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> on my next show, i'll talk to fashion icon stacy london. now, i have to figure out what not to wear, for the host of what not to wear.

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>>i jump out of my skin at people when i'm upset. do you share the sense of this corruption based on corruption based on corruption. >>i think that's an understatement, eliot. u>> i'm not prone tot. understatement, so explain to me why that is. i think the mob learned from wall st., not vice versa.

>> announcer: this is the "full court press." >> announcer: heard around the country and seen on current tv this is the "bill press show." >> john: can you liberals stop being so many to paul ryan. can you freedom loving liberals stop being so mean? just because he didn't have his math ready on chris wallace. can i tell you something paul. i care about you. i'm not going to call you eddie munster. really paul ryan, i hated math, too, i never did my math

homework so i sympathize. this is the "bill press show." i'm john fuglesang filling in for bill. we're taking your calls at 1-866-55-press. very happy to be joined this morning by the editor in chief of one of my favorite sites one of the most important sites if you care about democracy. think progress. are you jed legum thanks for being here. >> good to be here with you. >> john: first off, i want to talk about the president's campaign a little bit. it seems like they're not letting up. on bain attacks. there have been a lot of people said let it go. people like his business record. but the obama campaign is not easing up on bain or on china. >> it's interesting because being here in d.c., you go et to see all of the ads because virginia is one of the places where they're running so many ads. >> john: i was visiting my mother in florida last week. i live in new york so i get some campaign ads but nothing like what the swing state folks have to endure. >> it is a lot of them. there is this shadow campaign

going on. china is a big issue on the 30-second campaign action ds but obama, no matter what people are saying on bain, whether the media is kind of saying oh well, you have a point or sometimes it goes the other way, where they say you've taken it a step too far. they just continue to hammer and hammer and hammer and i think that it's been effective and there's people who say well, this is slipping away from romney. and i think you just look at the strategy on the air look at where they're putting the money. their money. i think you have to conclude they believe this still could be a close race because they continue to pound away at his business record. >> john: is it fair? >> i think that -- i think that most of the stuff that the campaign has put out has been fair. i think some of the super pac ads, i felt that -- especially the one super pac ad where you know, they were talking about a

man whose wife had died. i don't think -- the implication is mitt romney responsible for that woman dying? i don't think that's -- i don't think that really is fair. >> john: i agree with you. if you're going to criticize romney for exploiting the death of our ambassador, you can criticize for that. >> some of the super pac ads have been a step too far but you know that happens on both sides. and certainly we've seen a lot more outrageous kind of attacks in politics. so i don't go home and hide under the covers because of an ad like that. i do think that -- it is one of the dangers to having so much of the outside groups who don't have as much accountability playing such a large role. you get stuff that maybe doesn't check out. >> john: i agree very much. let's go to the phones. by the way, not the ugliest campaign of our lifetime. we've seen much worse. dukakis/bush was uglier than

this. >> people say that every campaign. oh, it's never been uglier than this. remember the last campaign because it was pretty ugly. >> john: we've seen worst ones. >> this has been mostly fought on the issues. mostly about tax policy, medicare policy. i mean it's hardly all about personal attacks and -- >> john: on the campaign level, if you go to the comment section on news web sites there was never an uglier in history. lance is calling from huntington beach in california. you're on the "bill press show." >> caller: thank you for taking my call. >> john: sure. >> caller: when romney named ryan, i told my republican brother-in-law it was over because it is politics 101 you run toward your base in the primary and toward the center in the general. romney did not do that. >> john: i agree. >> caller: it shows his weakness because he kowtowed to his base rather than doing what he was supposed to do. may i say something else? >> john: please.

>> caller: if ryan doesn't like collectivist action, why is he working in congress? >> john: oh! >> caller: which is a collectivist body. furthermore, does he want to eliminate the vote because when we vote, we vote collectively to choose our leaders. thank you. >> john: thank you very much. he did throw out his ayn rand kool-aid. do you think ryan was a wise choice? the conventional wisdom seems to be no. it is a great point that the caller made. >> i think the problem with romney and the ryan choice is you could make the argument that hey, they need something bold. you need someone -- a little bit of a different pick to try to figure out a way to win this thing but i think they haven't -- they haven't picked a strategy. so they picked ryan which would suggest go out let ryan do his thing. let him talk about his plan and his budget and let him lay it out in detail. and let him be sort of a wonky person. but they've -- except for the first few days when they let him do that, they've really reigned him in. if you listen to ryan's

interviews, his interview on fox over the weekend he's now just sort of speaking in platitudes and saying the same kind of lines that mitt romney does. >> john: i'm not seeing him. >> it is unclear -- without that sort of freedom to talk the way he does and really fire up the base of the republicans what is he bringing? to the ticket? they thought maybe he would bring wisconsin into play. that's kind of fallen off. and i think -- they're trying to have it both ways with ryan. they don't want to take on any of the risks. but i think as a result, they're not getting much of the reward from it. >> john: who would you have picked if you were running the romney campaign? i got a really good idea who they could have picked. >> i don't know if i have really good ideas. i think i would have maybe gone with someone like a rubio. i don't know if he wanted it or would have taken it but i think i can see look, he could really help you in florida. he might be able to help you in

nevada. he might be able to help you in colorado. and to me, i actually think he makes a more convincing case for conservativism than paul ryan. i think paul ryan's appeal is very harsh and very narrow. yeah and i know he has a reputation for being able to sell this but i think really the audience he sells it to is mostly the conservative base. i think rubio would have shaken things up a little more. >> john: i gotta say mike huckabee would have been -- only problem is the two men hate each other. judd, thank you so much. always a pleasure. really great to meet you. judd legum. follow him at judd legum at think progress on the twitter. we'll be right back on the "bill press show."

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from td ameritrade. you've heard bill's views, now let's hear yours. politically direct means no b.s. just telling you what's going on in politics today. >>at the only on-line forum with a direct line to bill press. >>it's something i've been waiting for a long time. >>join the debate now.

[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: hey, how about it. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> john: wow scott staff of creed looks like peter from kiss does now. it is kind of sad. he looks like an aging bloated got -- >> he looks like the old scott staff if he had been stung by a thousand bees. >> john: good point. before the sex tape with kid rock. when you're kid rock and you have a sex tape with a guy from creed in it, it is pretty much over. you can't get in the redneck hall of fame after that. wisconsin tweets me, i live in wisconsin and just saw a ryan for congress ad last night. a little insurance just in case? and rum and coke writes mitt

romney accuses barack obama of wasting money on high-speed rail projects and soul train. very funny. i want to let y'all know i will be guest hosting joy behar's show "say anything" tomorrow on current. we will be having a very good political debate including rick unger of forbes and i'll be covering the convention -- the debate tomorrow with vice president gore for current and my own new weekly series so that happened which is a week in review show launches on current tv. currently, i'm really just all over current. i'm like the giving tree for current. i have my limbs my trunk my branches. i will be taking your calls when we come back. "buzzfeed" political reporter mackay coppins for my money knows more about mitt romney than any other journalist. he will be joining us right after the top of the hour. this is the "bill press show."

[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> john: good morning. this is the "bill press show." coming to you on current tv. i'm john fuglesang in for bill for the next hour. we're so happy to have you with us. on the twitter machine fred wilder writes that bernie madoff works for unicore as a call center operator in prison. don't give him your credit card number. i don't know if that's true. i assume bernie madoff has a prison job. can you imagine in prison with his cellmate. if you give me your pudding and cigarettes, i turn around and make more pudding and cigarettes for you.

i'm sure the scheme continues. we'll be taking your calls later on the show. we have mackay coppins of "buzzfeed" coming to join us. first, to the current news center in los angeles california, to the brilliant lisa ferguson for current news update. >> hey john, good morning everyone. lots of new poll numbers out this morning and mitt romney's world, this doesn't mean anything. in our world, it is debatable. quinnipiac is releasing its new numbers. nationally, the president is up 49 to 45% against mitt romney. he has a huge lead with women voters at 18 points and an even bigger lead among black voters at 94-2. most people also expect president obama to win the debates. and here's one other interesting fact from that poll. the president has a 22-point margin in favor of him when it comes to people who think he cares about america's problems. by comparison, most people do not believe mitt romney cares about them. and a new pew research survey is

finding most people are not happy with romney's comment that 47% of people are dependent on the government. 55% of negative voter -- excuse me, of registered voters say they reacted negative to that that comment. that's not so surprising but here's what is. 23% of people reacted positively to it. of those who like that comment more than half were republicans but quite a few were independents and about a quarter of them were making more money than the average middle class family. the democratic senatorial campaign committee has a big ad buy underway. starting today they're spending half a million dollars running ads in arizona to promote senate candidate richard carmona. he's up against g.o.p. representative jeff flake a recent poll has the two separated by just one point. arizona has nearly 800,000 eligible latino voters. nationally that, number is about 24 million. but a new report from the pew hispanic center says we'll

likely see low turnout among latinos. four years ago only half voted in the presidential election. we'll be right back. presents coverage of the presidential debate. with unrivaled analysis and commentary. >> you're going to hear that used as a major talking point. (vo) the only network with real-time reaction straight from the campaigns and from viewers like you. >>now that's politically direct.

[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: yep, michele bachmann takes the american flag down. replaces the american flag outside of her office with the >> john: the debate i'm excited about will be the joe biden/paul ryan debate. it will be like watching clarence darrow debate malfoy from the harry potter books. i can't imagine how they can come close to the fun that's going to have. by the way i have to read one more tweet. speaking of ads, i would vote early if it meant i could opt out of political ads until after the election. i think a lot of people feel the

same way. this is the "bill press show." i'm john fuglesang filling in for bill for the next hour of your lives. we're welcoming your calls at 1-866-55-press. coming up in a couple of minutes, "buzzfeed"'s political reporter mackay coppins who i've interviewed before. i think he knows more about mitt romney and mormonism than any other journalist. what i really want is a "full court press" update. >> speaking of theme songs john adele has been tapped to sing the latest james bond theme song. the pop singer confirming on twitter yesterday she's singing sky fall in the new movie by the same title coming out in november. skyfall is daniel craig's third installment as 007. >> john: javier bardem is a bad guy. >> the last bond theme song was by jack white and alicia keys. >> john: the song was called another way to die. i like the song. it wasn't very commercial. if wasn't very easy on the ears but it was a pretty neat sounding song. i kind of feel like pop stars --

james bond songs are like the bermuda triangle of pop music. when was the last time there was a james bond song anybody liked? bono wrote that one for tina turner. madonna did a song i never heard. >> she did. >> john: they go nowhere. there's audio of that. >> we do have audio. ♪ >> song that will be great in the movie. but it won't go anywhere on pop radio. >> john: no one's going to do original sounding songs -- why do the songwriters keep thinking it has to sound like a period 1960s song. modern sounding, get fat boys to do a technojames bond song but they all sound too retro. lovely voice. >> lots to talk about the first presidential debate in denver including what color tie will president obama and mitt romney

wear. more than likely red if recent trends continue. lind university which is hosting an upcoming debate. found the candidates have worn red ties over blue 13-5 in presidential debates since 2000. one candidate in modern debate history wore a green tie. that was bob dole in 1996. >> john: wow. of course jon huntsman wore that mustard yellow tie for the republicans which is why he lost. my prediction, the president will wear a red tie and the governor will wear a blue tie. >> of course the president will. he's a communist. he would wear red. >> john: the blue state president wears a red state tie. >> the oscars are in february and we now know who will be hosting the academy awards this year. it is family guy creator seth mcfarlane. he did ted in his directorial debut earlier this year. takes the place of billy crystal who we're sending off into the sunset. >> john: that should be funny. i think he will be terrific.

give them a chance to wear another all black tuxedo. he can make fun of the oscars then make fun of himself the next day for hosting the oscars. no one is mentioning the cleveland show. they say family guy creator. they don't say cleveland show creator. are you excited about seth? >> absolutely. i think he's funny. fantastic writer. i loved ted. i thought it was a great movie. family guy is one of the funniest shows on television. also one of the dirtiest. >> john: for another oscars, we'll be talking about the host and the clothes and maybe we'll be talking about the cinema. that's what the oscars are. we celebrate by talking about what people are wearing. thank you, dan. always a pleasure on the "full court press". is mackay around? do we have him? we'll be coming up with mackay coppins in just a second. we're taking your callless at 1-866-55-press. and now that things are in line, please welcome "buzzfeed"'s political reporter, a man i had the privilege of interviewing on satellite radio not too long

ago, mckay coppins. good morning sir. how are you? >> i'm good. >> john: i've been touting your credentials as being for my money, the foremost mitt romney expert. you've devoted a big chunk of your life to following this man and studying him very closely. [ laughter ] >> that's right. i've been on the trail with him for the past year. >> john: you're one of the most informed journalists when it comes to writing about his mormon faith as well. and do you think that you've seen his faith really playing out in this campaign in subtle ways or do you think he's tried to hide it? >> well, i think he did for awhile -- a good portion of the primary certainly and into the general election he didn't talk about it very much. at all. he did try to kind of hide it. and you know, there were political reasons for that also. i think that it was kind of a one part of his life that he had -- had decided not to let become politicized and so for awhile, he talked about it. but i think there was a pivot

point in the republican convention. that last night where they kind of invited a lot of former mormon congreg ants of his when he was a bishop to come speak. they used that and used his faith to sort of humanize him a little bit. and since then, he's let reporters basically every sunday come to church with him whether he's in new hampshire or boston. >> john: i thought it was the high point of the republican convention actually. i thought that was the emotional high point. >> that was one of the -- they were some of the strongest character witnesses for mitt romney. and since then, it has become more a part of his -- his candidacy i guess. what's interesting is the more that he's let the press in and the more he's talked about it and kind of put his faith on display, i think the less people are interested in it. which i think is kind of a good thing in a lot of ways. it shows that you know, being accepted into mainstream culture

and once people get a glimpse at it i talked to reporters who go to church with mitt romney. i've been with him and we take turns. he says it is not different than the churches i went to growing up. so i think people are slowly starting to realize it is not that weird or different. it is just another faith. >> john: women can't speak in mormon temple, that's correct? >> what was that? >> john: are women allowed to speak in mormon temples? >> oh, yeah, of course. they are. >> john: so much misconception about the faith. that's great to know. >> women speak. there's actually no -- you know, minister who gives a sermon every week. members of the congregation take turns giving sermons. and every week at least one or two women will be giving the sermons there. >> john: that's terrific. i am a bit surprised at the lack of scrutiny when you consider how much focus was placed on reverend jeremiah wright four years ago. i've been a bit surprised the

press has been hesitant to talk about things like proxy baptisms. as you know, mitt romney's father-in-law, ann romney's father was a devout atheist. after his death, mitt romney himself performed the posthumous baptism making him a mormon. we've heard a lot about this in the past year. one mormon church baptized anne frank despite the church's promise to not proxy baptize holocaust victims. are you a bit surprised things like that haven't gotten more scrutiny in the press given the attention that was paid to jeremiah wright a few years ago? >> i think back in february, i think it was, there was kind of a lot of scrutiny on proxy baptisms because it came out that like you said, holocaust victims had been getting baptized. and i think that there was even a case where -- i can't remember -- somebody was baptized -- one prominent figure was baptized who wasn't even

dead it turned out. proxy baptism for someone who hadn't died yet. >> john: wow. i'm trying to figure out if that's more or less offensive than baptizing a person without their consent. >> the mormon church has laid out clear ground rules. back in the '90s, they met with prominent jewish figures and said okay, we're not going to allow proxy baptisms for holocaust victims anymore. they installed fire walls in their genealogical database to try to prevent this from happening. at the end of the day though, there are still some overzealous mormons who find a way to get around the fire wall and the policies and the rules and that's something that the church takes seriously and has tried to camp down on. but some mormons don't quite understand how offensive that can be. >> john: i'm a bit surprised by that. i first learned about proxy baptisms from george carlin's daughter, kelly who told me how

her father a heroic atheist was baptized into the faith. i understand how folks in the mormon faith can view this as a compliment but it does seem to be a bit -- disrespectful to those who have passed on and i'm a bit surprised our media hasn't paid a bit more attention to it i've never heard governor romney ask about it. >> he was asked about it in 2008. he was asked about it in a sit-down interview -- i can't remember with which network. basically said what i said. the church has tried to stop this. some people of my faith don't understand it. but you know, i can't be held accountable for every member of my faith which is essentially -- >> john: says bishop romney. he is a bishop in the church, correct? >> he was a bishop. a bishop -- this is something a lot of people don't understand. a bishop is a temporary assignment that people in the church get. it lasts usually three to five years.

but -- and then you'll be replaced by somebody else. but it is not a permanent position in the church. you don't become a bishop then stay a bishop the rest of your life. he was a bishop back in the late '80s early '90s for about four or five years. and then he was released from that assignment and someone else took his place. >> john: i want to ask you about press coverage of governor romney. i do think that joe scarborough was unfair with the chant. i want to play the chant audio. i'm sure you know the story. this is ann romney with paul ryan on stage. >> romney: paul ryan, ain't that something. wait a second. romney ryan. romney ryan. romney ryan. there we go. all right. that's great. thank you. >> john: now this prompted a rather public mocking from joe scarborough. but i think it was an example of governor romney being a little

stiff and trying to do some crowd work which isn't his specialty. i thought the governor took a bad rap on that one. what do you think? >> in that case, when morning joe showed the clip of it, they heard people chanting but you couldn't really quite make out what they were chanting. but morning joe added a subtitle to indicate that the crowd had been chanting ryan's name. and that -- which made it look like romney came in and said add my name, too which makes him look a little bit desperate. i was actually there at that event as were you know, 30, 40, 50 other reporters. almost all of us heard that the crowd was chanting romney. and he was -- it is still awkward. he still seems a little awkward. but it makes him seem a little less desperate. i pointed that out on "buzzfeed." wrote an item pointing that out. as did some conservative blogs and joe scarborough did not take

kindly to that. has defended himself. you know. i think he referred to new media as the chee-tos brigade. i think we're kind of at a stand still here. i don't think we're going to make any more progress. but i do think that was an example where governor romney was treated a bit unfairly. >> john: does the governor have a good relationship with the press pool following him everywhere? >> that's an interesting question. >> john: you chuckle. >> it has been pretty up and down over the course of the past you know, 12 to 15 months, i guess. you know, the reporters always want more access. they always want -- you know, staff and the campaign and the candidate to answer more questions. i think for a long time, this campaign has been exceptionally shutout, closed off from the press. they're very cautious. mitt romney is famously cautious when he talks to the press.

and he sees how you know, he -- one line he says one word, one gaffe. can derail your messaging for a whole week or longer. and so he's been very careful. i think we reached a point though a few weeks ago couple of months ago maybe where the press just was so -- got so insist went he go the more access. the campaign has been making efforts to fix its relationships with the press. i think they understand that it's naturally and an taggist inic relationship. we're supposed to be covering him aggressively. we're going to write things they don't like. trying to be more up. they held more avails they called them and mitt romney has come to the back of the plane a few times to talk to us. >> john: that's good to know. were you surprised by politico's article last week, the roger simon piece that said that congressman ryan actually holds the governor in a bit of disdain

and has referred to him as "the stench"? did that surprise you? did you find that to be credible? >> oh, well, i think they actually came out and said that was satire. they added an editor's note. i think there were a lot of people who didn't understand it was satire. it was added -- they added an editor's note the next day. "buzzfeed" called them and asked about that. >> john: well, i'm relieved. >> it was an attempt at satire. >> john: when the onion site is down, i go right to politico for their insights. >> you need to be pretty clear when you're attempting satire on politico. it is not exactly what you're expecting. >> john: it did seem like ryan winced when he pointed out that barack obama didn't raise taxes during his first term. >> that was pretty great. his reaction was kind of a wts. wtf. what are you doing? by all accounts, i've done a lot

of reporting on this, ryan and romney have a very good rapport. that's one of the reasons that romney picked him even though you know, there was certainly some political calculation behind it. but a lot of people, even in his staff were divided on picking ryan. at the end of the day romney has a really good rapport for romney. likes him, respected him. that was one of the reasons he picked him. whether -- obviously the campaign is not doing very well. it will be interesting to see in the coming weeks especially after the first debate or two how ryan starts positioning himself. if he think they're going to lose, it will be interesting to see how he starts positioning himself for a loss and for a potential 2016 run. >> john: it seems that ryan has a lot of respect for the governor. he was the only high profile g.o.p. speaker at the convention to really not be running for himself in 2016 but running for mitt romney right now. can you stick around for after the break? >> sure. >> john: we'll be right back because i have a few more questions to ask you. we'll be right back with

"buzzfeed"'s mckay coppins. this is the "bill press show." >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." (vo) always outspoken, now unleashed. joy behar. >> on my next show, i'll talk to fashion icon stacy london. now, i have to figure out what not to wear, for the host of what not to wear. break the ice with breath-freshening cooling crystals. ice breakers.